V2A9/10

Let's assume that Germany is at peace through the 1940's, after Hitler acquires Austria and Czechoslovakia. The same amount of money that was given to the V2 program is the same ITTL. When could the V2A9/10 enter service? Would it have had enough payload capacity to carry a Little boy/Fat Man style nuke? What sort of accuracy could it achieve?

Thanks
Red1
 

Pangur

Donor
With out the war development would have been a lot slower so maybe mid 50`s for it been ready. The V2 was far from accurate and I cant see how the A9/A10 would be much different.

It was designed to carry a 1000 KG war head, Little Boy weighed 4.4 times that.

That been the case I cant see this working
 
How long would it take for the Germans to scale it up and produce a rocket that could carry Little boy?
 

Pangur

Donor
I am not sure however lets start with the numbers

Range

Assuming a launch position in Germany (Frankfurt) and the target is New York you have a range of 6,600 km. The A9/A10 had a range of 5000km

Payload

Where as Little Boy weighed 4,400 kgs later weapons weighted less so maybe assume a 4,000 kg war head (approx weight of the first nukes that US missiles carried

Means of detonating the weapon

This would be very hared bit as the weapon has to survive launch and journey to target but also reentry.


All in all Early 60`s at best
 
Agreed, without a pre-WW2 POD it'd be fairly hard to advance rocket technology faster than OTL in the 1940s-1950s period, at least in Germany.
 
Hitler didn't unleash the $$$ for Von Braun until 1942. Until 1936-37, even Von Braun admitted that "Goddard was still ahead of us all."

The problem with the A-9/10 is that it really doesn't have any targets to hit, short of the UK. In that, it does allow for strikes against Britain that don't have to be launched from France and the Low Countries.

It's too inaccurate to hit viable targets in the USSR, and to hit the USA would require launching sites in the extreme west of France, or even Portugal! At THAT distance, most of the incoming missiles would either burn up on re-entry or land in the Atlantic. An incredibly expensive version of Japan's "Balloon Bomb Campaign" against the Pacific Northwestern USA.
 
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Hitler didn't unleash the $$$ for Von Braun until 1942. Until 1936-37, even Von Braun admitted that "Goddard was still ahead of us all."
A nice sentiment, but Goddard never got a rocket above 2.7 km, and only managed even that in 1937, whereas von Braun's team had gone to 3.5 km at the end of 1934

It's too inaccurate to hit viable targets in the USSR, and to hit the USA would require launching sites in the extreme west of France, or even Portugal! At THAT distance, most of the incoming missiles would either burn up on re-entry or land in the Atlantic. An incredibly expensive version of Japan's "Balloon Bomb Campaign" against the Pacific Northwestern USA.
Actually, there were attempts to tow V-2s in waterproof containers behind U-boats, thus getting the needed distance, Would have done nothing good for the accuracy though.
 

Perkeo

Banned
US and USSR ICBM's became operational in the late 1950's, and I suppose OTL US/USSR = ITL Nazi Germany is a ballpark figure we can work with. Of course, missile development was boosted during WWII, but it stagnated 1945-1950, so IMO it's not totally ASB that those effects even themselves out.

However, more important than the mere existence of a Nazi-ICBM is its strategic use: With a conventional warhead - and the limits on targeting technology of that time - the A-9/10 would struggle to inflict casualties other than death of laughter. When you do have a nuclear warhead, there are other means of delivery, such as Airplanes or submarine-based missiles, both available way before ICBM's became the main instrument of nuclear deterrence.
 
Given that the 1000 kg payload of the A9/10 would most likely probably be too small for an atomic payload, you'd probably need something like the proposed A11 design, which had a first stage of 6 A10 engines, and an A9/10 mounted on top. Wiki says it would have had a 300kg orbital payload, so that makes it roughly similar to the R-7, which appeared in 1957 OTL.
 
Hitler didn't unleash the $$$ for Von Braun until 1942. Until 1936-37, even Von Braun admitted that "Goddard was still ahead of us all."

The problem with the A-9/10 is that it really doesn't have any targets to hit, short of the UK. In that, it does allow for strikes against Britain that don't have to be launched from France and the Low Countries.

It's too inaccurate to hit viable targets in the USSR, and to hit the USA would require launching sites in the extreme west of France, or even Portugal! At THAT distance, most of the incoming missiles would either burn up on re-entry or land in the Atlantic. An incredibly expensive version of Japan's "Balloon Bomb Campaign" against the Pacific Northwestern USA.

They did have a proposed solution to the accuracy issue; putting a pilot on board. It wouldn't quite have been a suicide mission as they would have had ejection capability. How much of a chance of survival those pilots would actually have had is debatable.
 
A nice sentiment, but Goddard never got a rocket above 2.7 km, and only managed even that in 1937, whereas von Braun's team had gone to 3.5 km at the end of 1934

On the other hand Von Braun did keep writing Goddard soliciting advice. If you really want to accelerate rocketry all round get the US government to take Goddard seriously or get him some private backing. Howard Hughes in his air racing days strikes me as someone who might be interested in rockets if approached in the right way.
 
The Germans had problems with staging, they never really understood that there is more to a multiple stage rocket than just sticking another rocket on the top. However if the Third Reich is at peace, what requirement for rockets is there?
 
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